I like those long quest chains where you have to go through many steps at different locations, maybe with different gameplay (mix gathering, crafting, fighting).
Sadly nowadays most quests are either very short or consist of only a few steps but with lots of grinding.
My favorite quest that always sticks with me is I was playing my Arasai (mid sized evil fairy race) and upon hitting like level 60-70 something I received a quest to turn my arasai into a mount (using my own wings to fly).
The story went into detail on one of my favorite zones, Faydark, and the arasai race (which used to be a normal sized forest and a tiny race of fairies) were so big. A deity had cursed the land along time ago and the fairy race was caught in the curse, making everything HUGE.
So after a really fun quest chain where I provided a service or something to the deity and asked him to bless me. I received a new mount called Blessing of <deity name> and when I activated it, it made me like 10x smaller and I could fly everywhere now with my wings. Super fun.
Another fun one was the story line of when Lucan D'Leres tower was attacked and he was missing. We finally got to go up into his tower and if I remember correctly the quest line gave me his flaming sword as a furniture piece for my house. It still after several years sits over my hearth.
My favorite quest that always sticks with me is I was playing my Arasai (mid sized evil fairy race) and upon hitting like level 60-70 something I received a quest to turn my arasai into a mount (using my own wings to fly).
The story went into detail on one of my favorite zones, Faydark, and the arasai race (which used to be a normal sized forest and a tiny race of fairies) were so big. A deity had cursed the land along time ago and the fairy race was caught in the curse, making everything HUGE.
So after a really fun quest chain where I provided a service or something to the deity and asked him to bless me. I received a new mount called Blessing of <deity name> and when I activated it, it made me like 10x smaller and I could fly everywhere now with my wings. Super fun.
Another fun one was the story line of when Lucan D'Leres tower was attacked and he was missing. We finally got to go up into his tower and if I remember correctly the quest line gave me his flaming sword as a furniture piece for my house. It still after several years sits over my hearth.
Interesting one, with multiple aspects... on general I agree with those saying LotRO, TSW, SWTOR, etc., the story-focused games have the best ones.
Best experience, in mechanics:
by that condition most quests are generic (kill, fetch, escort, etc.), so I'd say the dynamic questing with Orchalwë in Annúminas, LotRO. Interesting mechanic, seamlessly integrated into the storyline and the setting of the city around it.
The other would be the community investigation of the Rider, in TSW. Basically an ARG, implemented within the game. Never seen anything like it in other games.
Best experience, offline:
not really a subcategory, but can't put it elsewhere and just have to have a mention: origami in Kaidan, TSW. No other game asks you to do origami fish, crane, etc. in front of your PC as part of your gameplay experience... and it was amazing.
The more traditional ones,
exploration: many LotRO quests before the tracker and quest GPS were added. Finding a boar in Evendim is still a good one though
joke: the little farmer questline in AoC (it even was on a Best NPCs list back in the days), perfectly mocking the gold farmers as a whole, the entire market chain.
writing: Christmas Conspiracy in TSW. Fits perfectly for the game (weaved around an old conspiracy theory about Mozart), implemented into it really well, long, has twists and puzzles... I'm glad Funcom added it into TSW and didn't make a standalone game from it like they did with the Park.
And, since I've mentioned Park,
emotional rollercoasters: Seven Silences, TSW. If you want to know why people were almost in love with TSW, this storyline is one of the finest examples.
Narmeleth, LotRO. Beautiful and sad story.
(cameltosis mentioned it too above, Amarthiel/Oakheart is partially this storyline as well)
The whole starter island of Vanguard, it was full of easter eggs. I think I must have leveled at least 20 characters, probably more like 30, and yet I kept finding new things I could do there.
I had so many character slots because towards the end of the game SOE added the fremium concept to Vanguard and over time I could buy 20 character slots as a result, and I had two accounts towards the end of the runtime (something I refused to do for most of the run).
They also added a lot of other lowlevel quests. The one with the meatgrinder was already mentioned. There also have been crafting and diplomacy questlines, though, which made these types of activities a lot more fun, too.
Best single questline in Vanguard was probably the Ancient Port Warehouse. As a raid dungeon, obviously experiencing it fully took years, and of course they also kept adding stuff.
The best non-MMO quest, oh thats hard. Probably one of the many questlines in Baldurs Gate 2. But theres so many, its really hard to pick just one out of the fold.
The whole starter island of Vanguard, it was full of easter eggs. I think I must have leveled at least 20 characters, probably more like 30, and yet I kept finding new things I could do there.
I had so many character slots because towards the end of the game SOE added the fremium concept to Vanguard and over time I could buy 20 character slots as a result, and I had two accounts towards the end of the runtime (something I refused to do for most of the run).
They also added a lot of other lowlevel quests. The one with the meatgrinder was already mentioned. There also have been crafting and diplomacy questlines, though, which made these types of activities a lot more fun, too.
Best single questline in Vanguard was probably the Ancient Port Warehouse. As a raid dungeon, obviously experiencing it fully took years, and of course they also kept adding stuff.
The best non-MMO quest, oh thats hard. Probably one of the many questlines in Baldurs Gate 2. But theres so many, its really hard to pick just one out of the fold.
Damn now I miss that game again.
I'll agree with Vanguards Ancient Port Warehouse, they don't make raids like that anymore.
Some of Vanguards group dungeons would be classed as small raids in some other mmo's
Storyline quests make me feel like I'm in a canned play (and I just want to get out). I much prefer the "in-the-moment" reality of EQ1 over the "captive audience gameplay" of EQ2.
I always think of it like I am reading a script and just going through the motions...i really don't like to play that way, that's why I am not a fan of quests.
I like quests that tell good stories well - not necessarily long or tough ones although that's neither here nor there for telling a story.
This is me, also.
WoW is "The Questing MMO" (amiright?) so my memories are of my time there. The specialized class quests is what stood out for me.
Once upon a time in WoW, Druids had their 3 shape quests and hunters had to actually learn how to tame their beasts. The bear shape quest was hard, fighting your way through multiple moonkins (and possibly other wondering animals) just to get to the cave where the bear spirit was, then fight it to show your strength. The walrus form quest was not too hard, but very interesting as you swam beyond your endurance and had to find the "bubbling clam" in order to find what you sought. The Tauren spirit quest where you followed the spirit wolf was also a fun one
What these "quests" had in common was that they were actually quests, where your character learned and grew or some world/area lore was passed down, not some "busywork" lame thing that any farmer willing to get off their ass could accomplish. The other end of the spectrum (save the area/world) did not sit well with me either, as I watched many players given the same quest and got the same reward and were all called "saviors."
I'm an English language snob and would just like developers and gamers to call most of these things "tasks", not quests. "I went on a 'vision quest' and had to clear a den of wolves." said no one ever
PS: I wish I could have experienced any of EQ's Epic Class Quests, but alas, I never made it that far (max character was level 38)
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse. - FARGIN_WAR
The escort the sleepy nightelf druid npc in wow was funny, he would lay down and sleep during it and you had to blow a horn in his ear to wake him up and continue journey.
Agreed! I also laughed heartily at the Troll Druid quest where he kept changing into his walrus form on land and flopped about!
And then you had the Goblin Tinkerer that wanted you to scare their friends with their tiny mechanical Yeti!
The barfight in the seaside town (something Bay) between the Goblins and Gnomes(?) was a riot, too
And Lunk, asking for help as he rode spiders to get their venom on his belly.
WoW had so funny quests, too.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse. - FARGIN_WAR
I did love the Norn Personal Story in GW2, where you get drunk at a MOOT and steal a Charr car. That was hysterical.
I remember that! You had to retrace your drunken steps and follies
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse. - FARGIN_WAR
While there have been many good quests in various games, none really fit what I am looking for. Instead of grinding out some wolf spleens, or running a complete tour of the rare spawns of the world (twice), why can't quests be something more than just various ways to waste time? I'd love to see quests where there are multiple endings that affect your character (and possibly the world) differently? I've run through the hoops to get the mighty sword, but do I give it to the poor farmer who told me about the sword? Do I give it to his rival? Do I sell it to the shady businessman starting to crowdfund a new game, (sorry, reflexes), at his store near the sewers? Maybe I wager the sword in a high stakes card game? Or what about giving the sword to the king to gain favor with his daughter? A quest could easily pose an ethical/moral question and the action chosen could change their reputation. Imagine if giving the sword to the wrong party caused your home town to banish you, or starts a war -- personal gain for your character, but a negative impact on the region/world.
Bottom line: quests are too static, too linear, too generic, and too predictable. It's time quests evolve.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
I’ve experienced so many great quests over the years it’s really hard to pick a favourite. I’ve been replaying BotW lately and I just love how the main quest is pieced together, the flashbacks and all. I just love games I get emotionally invested in.
especially the investigation missions stood out, solving them COMPLETELY without the internet was a serious endeavour.
You mean completely without spoilers, right?
Internet was pretty much mandatory, that's why the in-game browser was there... to filter out spoiler and walkthrough sites, while still giving access to the entire web, from the character's point of view.
Sure, one could solve everything without tools, wikis, etc. but I doubt such an individual exists - and if does, most likely doesn't waste the time on video games I mean, with that vast of a skillset...
Speaking a lot of languages (latin, greek, hebrew, romanian, japanese) without any translate services, deep knowledge on history, mythologies, arts (medieval painters, really?), using Morse by hearing, converting hexa/binary/etc. on the fly, using multiple ciphers on paper, a good musical background, the list could go on.
I can only talk about myself, I used wikis A LOT. And translate.
And in Kaidan a hiragana drawing/recognising tool. And a cipher toolkit. And a Morse app (even if I've learned Morse as a kid, I definitely can't use it on the fly).
Hex/bin converting is actually a fun brainwork, I liked that part. (but still used a converter for the SD satellite mission, no way I convert a two pages long stream manually )
Fully agree with the core idea of the post though, TSW's investigation missions were amazing.
Those epic quests in Everquest. The Heritage quests in Everquest 2. Some good quests in WoW I enjoyed like the forms for the druid. The job quests in FFXI. Many good quests in SWTOR. So many good ones cannot choose best.
Just those pointless sidequests like some dwarf lost his pants or somebody needs to use the toilet and it explodes. Totally pointless to anything but a funny distraction.
Comments
Sadly nowadays most quests are either very short or consist of only a few steps but with lots of grinding.
1997 Meridian 59 'til 2019 ESO
Waiting for Camelot Unchained & Pantheon
My favorite quest that always sticks with me is I was playing my Arasai (mid sized evil fairy race) and upon hitting like level 60-70 something I received a quest to turn my arasai into a mount (using my own wings to fly).
The story went into detail on one of my favorite zones, Faydark, and the arasai race (which used to be a normal sized forest and a tiny race of fairies) were so big. A deity had cursed the land along time ago and the fairy race was caught in the curse, making everything HUGE.
So after a really fun quest chain where I provided a service or something to the deity and asked him to bless me. I received a new mount called Blessing of <deity name> and when I activated it, it made me like 10x smaller and I could fly everywhere now with my wings. Super fun.
Another fun one was the story line of when Lucan D'Leres tower was attacked and he was missing. We finally got to go up into his tower and if I remember correctly the quest line gave me his flaming sword as a furniture piece for my house. It still after several years sits over my hearth.
those that have a story to tell
and feel like a true archievement whne you have finished them..
a quest, is not a simple task
a quest is something epic..
a knight thats going to pick apples is not on a quest
a knight thats going to kill a dragon or overthrow a kingdom, now thats a quest.
it beats me why we call simple tasks Quests..
Best Quest so far?
no clue... there are not many reall quests out there..
but in general it are multilayered quests..
that give you a choice
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
Some of Vanguards group dungeons would be classed as small raids in some other mmo's
Non mmo's Gothic 2: Night Of The Raven Expansion.
I always think of it like I am reading a script and just going through the motions...i really don't like to play that way, that's why I am not a fan of quests.
WoW is "The Questing MMO" (amiright?) so my memories are of my time there. The specialized class quests is what stood out for me.
Once upon a time in WoW, Druids had their 3 shape quests and hunters had to actually learn how to tame their beasts. The bear shape quest was hard, fighting your way through multiple moonkins (and possibly other wondering animals) just to get to the cave where the bear spirit was, then fight it to show your strength. The walrus form quest was not too hard, but very interesting as you swam beyond your endurance and had to find the "bubbling clam" in order to find what you sought. The Tauren spirit quest where you followed the spirit wolf was also a fun one
What these "quests" had in common was that they were actually quests, where your character learned and grew or some world/area lore was passed down, not some "busywork" lame thing that any farmer willing to get off their ass could accomplish. The other end of the spectrum (save the area/world) did not sit well with me either, as I watched many players given the same quest and got the same reward and were all called "saviors."
I'm an English language snob and would just like developers and gamers to call most of these things "tasks", not quests. "I went on a 'vision quest' and had to clear a den of wolves." said no one ever
PS: I wish I could have experienced any of EQ's Epic Class Quests, but alas, I never made it that far (max character was level 38)
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
And then you had the Goblin Tinkerer that wanted you to scare their friends with their tiny mechanical Yeti!
The barfight in the seaside town (something Bay) between the Goblins and Gnomes(?) was a riot, too
And Lunk, asking for help as he rode spiders to get their venom on his belly.
WoW had so funny quests, too.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
especially the investigation missions stood out, solving them COMPLETELY without the internet was a serious endeavour.
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"
This isn't a signature, you just think it is.
Aerowyn's Video Compilation of ALL things Guild Wars 2